Pages

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Book Review & Blog Tour ~ Forever Julia by Jodi Carmichael {Giveaway}

Forever Julia

by Jodi Carmichael

Publication date: May 1, 2015Publisher: Great Plains Publications

Six months ago, Julia's life was perfect. Then her dad died. Now she lives with her grieving mother and sick grandmother in a puny apartment above their bookstore. After a dark bout of depression, Julia is fragile, and mourns both her father and her old life. But she has one thing to be happy about: Jeremy, the most popular boy at school, has chosen her. Jeremy's love for Julia is passionate, even obsessive. As she grows closer to Jeremy, Julia pushes her disapproving friends and family away. But Jeremy only becomes more controlling and Julia has to decide what lines cannot be crossed.

Already emotionally fragile after losing her
father to cancer, Julia is over the moon excited when the most popular boy in
school wants to go out with her.Being
with Jeremy though is not always easy as he complains about her clothes,
friends and even wants to control what she eats as to not get fat.Jeremy is obsessive and controlling, but
Julia seems to be blind to it all because she wants this relationship to
work.But will she sacrifice her values and
her friends just to prove to Jeremy that she loves him?

Forever
Julia was an intriguing and skillfully written story
that had me glued to the pages hoping that Julia would see that she deserved so
much more and didn't need to settle for something she thought was the best she
was going to get.

I really liked Julia's character, because
despite all the heartache in her life, she was just a girl trying to do her
best and give it her all. Jeremy however
was not my favorite (but really, he is not suppose to be). He would go from zero to prick in 2 seconds
flat and it was very hard not to want to reach within the pages and strangle
him. Blame it on upbringing, or
whatever, but people like Jeremy need a good butt-whooping!

Forever
Julia may be a work of fiction, but the story is far
too real in the lives of many young girls and women everywhere. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially
teenagers and young adults because Forever
Julia deals with real life issues that happen every day in some girl's life. The signs of abuse may be subtle, but there
are signs and this story depicts them beautifully.

4 stars

“Julia you’ve got
to stop talking about what happens between us. That’s private. It’s only
between you and me. I meant it when I said we belong together. What we have is
special, and I don’t want the whole world knowing everything.”

“I don’t tell
anyone intimate details,” I say, flushing at the words. “But I always tell my
mom stuff. She’s pretty intense about not keeping secrets. It’s one of her big
rules. Especially after I had that trouble after Dad died.”

“Julia, you have me
now. You don’t need to go telling any- one else anything. I am here for you. If
you have problems, you can talk to me. No one else. Promise?”

“What about
Annika?”

“No one. Julia, you
have to trust me, or this is not going to work. I love you. I am willing to
keep our personal life private.” Every time he says loves me I get this rush.

“He doesn’t care
what I do. He always says: ‘If you’re going to run with the dogs, you better
rise with the roosters.’”

“What does that
even mean?”

“That I can party
all I want, but I’m not allowed to miss any school. Most importantly, I can’t
embarrass him.”

“Oh. He doesn’t
care what you do?” My dad was so involved in my life, I can’t imagine if he had
been like Jeremy’s dad.

“He’s only in town
a few days a month. He has no clue.” “What about your mom? I know she spends a
lot of time in California, but still.” His face clouds over.

“Change of
subjects. What did you think about the last basketball game? I totally
dominated,” Jeremy says.

“Yes you d—”

My words dry up as
he places his hand on my knee, sending a jolt of electricity up and down my
leg. I look down, half expecting to see tiny white lightning bolts shooting out
his fingertips.

“Uhm, okay,” I
mumble. All moisture in my mouth evaporates as my sandpaper tongue scratches
the roof of my Sahara desert-dry mouth. I’ve just been zapped by 1,000 volts of
Jeremy. As we drive down the winding streets, I am acutely aware that Jeremy
has not removed his hand from my leg. This is good and bad. Good because it
feels incredible. Bad because I can’t concentrate on what he’s saying. He’s
talking about basketball and playoffs. I think. I can’t be sure because all I
can think of is his hand. It started on my knee but slipped up my leg to rest
on my thigh after the first turn, and there his hand, his very hot hand, has
remained. This would be fine, except that I can’t get my mind to stop imagining
what would hap- pen if that very hot hand slipped further north. Would I stop him? Would I want to stop him?
Would Jeremy think I was a skank? But that’s what he wants, so he can’t think I
am a skank? Right?

My head is reeling
and now my pits have begun to sweat. Seriously, I now have drippy pits. If just thinking about sex causes my body to
go into overdrive, what’s next? Will a massive boil suddenly erupt from the
middle of my forehead if he kisses me again?

Jeremy’s voice
breaks through the insane skank-babble that is cluttering my brain.

“Julia...hello
Julia???”

“Oh sorry, I just…”
I am completely flustered.

JODI CARMICHAEL lives in Winnipeg where she can often be found dancing in the living room with her two wildly imaginative daughters, her patient and supportive husband, and a scruffy Border Terrier named Zoe. Jodi’s previous book for young readers, Spaghetti Is NOT A Finger Food, won numerous awards and has been a multi-week Bestseller.